Before Happily Ever After
by NightIntent
Summary: Oneshot. A prequel to Snow White's Happily Ever After. Just a way to clarify all the hints of the past that I had in the other two.


NightIntent: ...Boredom made me do it. And I wanted to clear up all the things from the original. Reading"Snow White'sHappily Ever After" might help when reading this, but since this is the prequel, it's not really necessary. And please tell me if I left something out of it, because I really didn't want to go back and look at all the hints at the past in both the original and the sequel. I was lazy. So just tell me about any mistakes. This is really turning into a series, isn't it?

Disclaimer: I don't own the story Snow White.

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Kara dangled her foot in a river, humming softly to herself. She'd come out farther into the forest than she usually did, but she wasn't particularly scared. There was nothing in the forest that was big enough to be any real threat to her, so she felt as safe as she ever did. Certainly safer than she felt at home, with her stepmother and father.

Kara sighed. She'd meant to avoid thinking about them. Her stepmother hated her, and made no secret of it. While her father didn't mind her, he didn't really like her, either. Kara thought that he felt it was her fault that her mother, his only love, had died. He would have entirely ignored her, had it not been for the false wrongs that her stepmother always made up about Kara.

"Blegh," Kara muttered, lying back on the ground and staring at the sky. She shoved all thoughts of her "family" out of her head. It was at that moment that someone grabbed the back of her head, and pushed a cloth against her mouth. Kara inhaled a strange-smelling herb. She was knocked out instantly.

Kara woke up slowly. She looked around groggily, trying to figure out where she was. While rubbing her eyes, Kara remembered that she'd been… _kidnapped_? Who would kidnap her? _Okay_, she thought. _I need to gather my thoughts. I'm in a small room. A closet, perhaps? Yes, a closet seems likely. But why is there a bed in a closet?_ She was, indeed, lying on a bed, one that nearly entirely filled up the whole room.

In a few minutes, someone opened the door a bit and peered in. When he saw that Kara was awake, he shut the door quickly. Mere seconds later, the door opened again. A few small men, a few inches shorter than average height, stared inside the closet at her.

"Wh-who are you?" Kara demanded. "What am I doing here?"

The men just stared at her. Surely they spoke the same language, Kara thought. She hadn't wandered _that_ far away from home. "Why aren't you answering me?" she asked.

The door closed.

"Dammit," Kara muttered. She stood up. Her head pounded and the world spun. She ignored it and started pounding on the inside of the door. Nothing happened. "Gah," she muttered. "Stupid men. I _knew_ I was right when I said I hated men!"

Kara sat down on the small bed, muttering nonsensically to herself. Her head still hurt. She lay back down on the bed. Soon, she fell asleep, her body sleeping off the drug from before.

"Hey. Hey, wake up," a voice was saying. Someone was shaking Kara awake. "Here." The man shoved a plate into Kara's hands and left the room.

"Wait!" Kara shouted. Too late. The door was already closed. She looked down at the plate in her hands. There was toast, butter, and scrambled eggs on it. She picked up the fork next to the food and started to eat. When she was done, she placed the plate on the floor next to the bed and walked over and tapped on the door. "Hello?" she called through the door. "I'm done."

A few minutes later, the door opened again. A hand slid in and snatched the plate away. Before the door could close, Kara lunged forward and grabbed the door. She couldn't hold it, though. She wasn't strong enough. Instead, he shoved a shoe into the crack between the door and the wall. "I want an explanation," Kara informed the people behind the door. "Why did you kidnap me?"

"Because," one answered reluctantly, "we need someone to clean the house." They shoved the shoe back in and slammed the door shut.

"I can do that so well from inside here," Kara muttered. "It's way too dark in here. Why kidnap _me_? Oh, right. I was there. What other reason is there?" She sighed and sat.

Time passed. There was one plus to being locked in the little room: Kara had a lot of time to think. "Crap!" Something had suddenly occurred to her. "My tan's gonna fade! Then again, I didn't have that much of a tan to begin with. But, still, it took forever to get my skin even the slightest bit darker. Dammit. I've gotta start over now." Kara sighed. "Being kidnapped and locked in a room sure is inconvenient."

Finally, the door opened. And _stayed_ open. Hesitantly, Kara stood up, winced at the pain in her cramped legs, and walked through it. Five men, the short-ish ones she'd seen before, were sitting in a row, staring at her.

"Who are you?" Kara asked instantly.

"You'll find out later," the one closest to her said, "if we decide that you're trustworthy."

"Which will be…?"

"Eventually."

"Good to know. What, exactly, do you need to protect?"

"None of your business."

"Obviously it is," Kara snapped. "You kidnapped me, after all."

"Kidnapping usually involves sending a ransom letter. Which we didn't do."

"Same premise," Kara shot back. "You still grabbed me from the middle of the forest, against my will. What would you call it?"

"Abduction," said the talkative man instantly.

"…Oh, yeah, that's very different from kidnapping," Kara snapped, irritated. "They're practicall synonyms!"

"Your point?"

"Just tell me who you are, will you?"

"Nope," said another man.

"How annoying," Kara said.

"Of course," a third man replied.

"You know, you all look the same," Kara remarked idly, really looking at them for the first time.

"Makes sense," said the smallest man, who hadn't talked before. "We're brothers."

"Ah. Yes, that does make sense." Kara grinned. She'd gotten _some_ information from them, at least.

One of his brothers elbowed the small one. "Idiot," he hissed. "Why'd you tell her that?"

"What does it matter?" the small one demanded.

"It doesn't," said the one closest to Kara, who seemed to be the leader. "Let's just put her to work. We can ignore her all we like after that."

"True," the last one replied. "Very well. What's your name?"

"You didn't tell me yours, why should I tell you mine?" Kara replied, annoyed.

The first man shrugged. "Fine, we'll just call you 'girl.' That work for you?"

"Like I care."

"Good. So, girl, you'll be doing housework for us. You can start by cleaning the bedrooms. Go on, shoo, the things you'll need are up there already."

Grumbling under her breath about stupid males, Kara walked up the stairs. Sure enough, there was a bucket with cloths, sitting next to a broom. Kara picked the broom up and went into the first room. She started coughing instantly. "Man! When was the last time this place was dusted?" She went and grabbed a rag, then set to work dusting all the six rooms on the upper floor. When she finished dusting, she swept the dust that had fallen to the floor out into the hall, then into a dustpan.

"Done!" she called down the stairs, brushing the dust off her hands onto her long skirt. "What now?"

"Wow," she heard one of the men say.

"She's fast," said another.

Kara smiled. She'd surprised them. Good. She walked back down the stairs. "Well? What now?"

The leader pointed back at Kara's closet.

"Can't I get a change of clothes, first?" she demanded.

"They're in there already," was the reply.

"Fine." Without another word, Kara flounced into the closet, closing the door behind her before it could be closed for her.

Days passed. The same thing happened every day. While she cleaned, the five men lounged downstairs. Other than to clean, Kara was never allowed to leave the closet. She was going a little stir crazy. She'd also convinced herself that she'd gained weight. The truth of it didn't matter, it was all in the psyche.

"Can't I go outside?" she asked one day. "Just to go for a run?" A ride would be better, but she could deal with a run.

"Maybe some other day," the leader replied. "Why do you want to go so badly?"

"Because I need to keep my figure!" Kara explained fervently. "It's the only thing I have."

All five of the men rolled their eyes. "Females," one muttered.

Kara rolled her eyes, too. "Males," she murmured. "They just don't get how females think." She marched up the stairs to do her cleaning.

The next day, after she was done with her chores, one of the men led her outside. "Let's go for your run, then," he said by way of explanation. Kara grinned. Finally! She hitched up her skirt and followed the man out the door.

Partway through their run, Kara heard a running horse, some way away. She started walking, too tired to keep running. The horse she'd heard galloped down the road just as she slowed down. It had a rider on it. The rider didn't even slow down as she saw Kara and her companion. The two had to dodge out of the road. The horse tripped over a branch and nearly fell. The rider shouted something at Kara and the man, but neither caught what she said.

The two didn't pay any more mind to the incident, and continued back to the cabin. The next day, Kara didn't wake up.

The five men were beside themselves.

"What's happened?" one asked.

"Why did she die?" another inquired.

"She's not dead!" the third proclaimed.

"Just in a coma!" a fourth agreed.

"Shut up!" the fifth, their leader, shouted. "She's not dead, and she's not in a coma. Something must've happened to her. But what?"

"Um. What about a spell?" one suggested.

"Yeah, yeah!" three others agreed.

"Who would've laid a spell on her?" their leader demanded. "And when?"

"Well," the man who had accompanied her on the run the day before, "there was that woman yesterday. I think she though that Kara tripped her horse."

"And you didn't tell me this before?" the leader demanded. "Why?"

"Because it didn't seem important! We didn't hear what she said."

The leader smacked his forehead with his open hand. "Idiots," he muttered. "I'm surrounded by idiots."

"That's not very nice," a couple men muttered back.

"You're not very nice. All right, all right, so it was probably a spell. How do we break it?"

The smallest man held up a book. "Fairy tales!" he called. "They always works!"

One man called in agreement, "Yeah, yeah, use a lesson from fairy tales!"

The other two snorted. "That's stupid."

"Yeah, who believes fairy tales?"

The leader said, "What use do we have for fairy tales in this situation?"

"Well, she's a bit like Snow White," the small man replied. "Has a spell cast on her, looks like she's dead. We can advertise that, and see if any man responds."

The leader rubbed his chin, thinking. "All right. Fine. It'll work. Do it."

"Ha!" said the small man and his supportive brother at the same time. They ran off to plan what they were gonna write for the advertisement.

A few days later, the brothers looked through their newspaper for their ad. "There it is!" one cried, pointing.

The ad read: "Real-life Snow White! Come wake her with a kiss! Come see us!" Below that was their address.

"That's stupid!" one brother exclaimed. "Who's gonna respond to that!"

"An idiot, that's who," said another.

"Nuh-uh!" the small man said. "They'll be intrigued!"

"Yeah, we wanted to pique their curiosity," his supporter insisted. "How could anyone _not_ pay attention to that?"

"Easily."

A week passed with no reply to their ad. Finally, on the eighth day after it had been in the paper, a prince showed up. He was passably handsome, and had nice clothes and a large group of guards. The brothers smiled at each other.

"Good day, sir," the leader said, bowing. "How may I help you today?"

"Where's this Snow White?" the prince demanded shortly.

"Right this way, sir," he replied.

The prince followed the man to Kara's little closet. He wrinkled his nose. "This is where the Snow White is?" he asked. "What a small, drab little place. I think I changed my mind."

"No, no, sir!" the other brothers said. "Really, just see her before you go."

"Very well," the prince sniffed. He looked inside. "She'll do. What am I supposed to do?"

"Just kiss her, sir," the leader of the five men said.

The prince leaned down and kissed Kara. One of the men, hiding on the other side of the bed, poked Kara with a needle. She jumped up, right into the prince's arms.

"Oh," she breathed. "Hello. Who are you?"

"My name is Finn," the prince replied. "And you're my bride."

"Really? How come?"

"Because I saved you," he replied.

"Oh." Kara blinked. "Okay. I needed saving?"

"Indeed you did. From these… dwarfs," Finn said, looking distastefully at the men. Still holding Kara in his arms, Finn walked from the cabin. "Kill them," he ordered his guards, meaning the men.

The men's faces turned shocked. "Wh-what!" they demanded. "Why?"

"Yes, why?" Kara asked, still not quite alert.

"Because they kidnapped you, my dear," Finn replied, handing her to a guard and mounting his horse. "And my father told me to kill the people who had you." He took Kara back and placed her on the horse in front of him. "Any other questions?" He raised his hand, and the guards not occupied with rounding up the men and trapping them in their house followed him down he road.

"I don't think so," Kara responded, leaning back against Finn's shoulder. "I think I'll go to sleep now." And she did.

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NightIntent: Yes, quick ending. But that's what "Snow White's Happily Ever After" is for. n.n Hoped you liked it. Please review! 


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